


i think about you (do you think about me?)

by horizonyunho



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Implied Kunten, M/M, Patronus, idk what this is, mentions of other members - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 16:12:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19299226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horizonyunho/pseuds/horizonyunho
Summary: Yukhei hated the Patronus Charm.





	i think about you (do you think about me?)

**Author's Note:**

> this is like 98.7% unedited so enjoy i guess?

As he failed yet again, Yukhei decided that the Patronus Charm was most likely going to be the death of him.

It wasn’t like he was struggling to find a happy memory; he had plenty — from hanging out with his family and fooling around with his friends, to winning the Quidditch Cup for his House, Gryffindor, and when Gryffindor had won the House Cup against Hufflepuff. And it also wasn’t like he was struggling to conjure something; he was able to cast an incorporeal Patronus just fine. However, in order to get the extra credit that his Defence Against the Dark Arts professor had offered him, Yukhei would need to produce a fully corporeal Patronus. At the rate that he was going, though, Yukhei figured he might as well say goodbye to the idea of getting into the N.E.W.T level Defence Against the Dark Arts class, since there was no way he would get into it otherwise.

The whole ordeal filled his thoughts as he went throughout his day, and he often found himself wandering through his own memories. There was the possibility that it was his memory being too weak to produce a corporeal Patronus. Before he could forget, Yukhei jotted down try different memory on his hand, before continuing to take Transfiguration notes. He was already struggling somewhat with Defence Against the Dark Arts, and the last thing Yukhei needed right now was for his Transfiguration professor to start cracking down on him—

“Mr Wong,” the professor called. The others laughed as Yukhei jumped in his seat. The professor had now distributed feathers for the students to practice Vanishing them. “Would you like to demonstrate for the class?”

“It would be an honor,” Yukhei responded, knowing fully well that the professor intended for him to look stupid in front of the class. He might’ve zoned out, but even he knew that the professor hadn’t yet taught them the Vanishing spell yet. Luckily for him, though, Johnny had warned him about this exact same professor, going as far as to teaching him several Transfiguration spells, just in case. “Evanesco.”

He successfully Vanished the feather, and the professor allowed him to have the rest of the class free, while the others struggled to produce the same results as him. Rather than dwell on his seemingly nonexistent luck with the Patronus Charm, Yukhei opted to complete some History of Magic assignments that he had pushed aside in favor of Quidditch practice. He’d received the shiny, scarlet pin confirming his captaincy over the summer — which Yukhei was glad about, because he was a Chaser, and the obnoxious Beater on the team would finally shut up about the uselessness of Chasers — and since Quidditch season was coming up, he would have to maintain his work up to date.

-

Yukhei didn’t walk into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom until a couple of weeks later, having spent the first half of the month stuck in the Hospital Wing. The match against Hufflepuff had gone fairly well, but Yukhei had ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor after a bludger struck his chest. Furthermore, it had been found that one of the Beaters on the Gryffindor team, the one Yukhei hated, had been behind the whole incident. This had resulted in the latter’s expulsion from the team, which Yukhei had been very happy about, because now he didn’t have to deal with the Beater’s unnecessarily sarcastic remarks every time he attempted to speak to the team as the captain.

Despite the circumstances, though, Yukhei had managed to catch up on the majority of his schoolwork for the weeks he had missed class, since he had awoken in the within the last few days of his stay at the Hospital Wing. His Defence Against the Dark Arts professor had even told him that the Patronus Charm was no longer necessary, because the quality of his work had shown that he was committed to improve. But as Renjun liked to say, Yukhei wouldn’t be a Gryffindor if he didn’t like overcomplicating his own life.

So here he was.

Yukhei sighed, getting into position. He focused on the memory he had chosen, the one that had given him the best results time and time again — the time his family and friends had gathered to celebrate his birthday, the birthday he had received his faithful owl, a feisty Sichuan Wood Owl named Juno.

“Expecto… Expecto…”

But he couldn’t. Yukhei sighed, letting himself fall to his knees after the charm failed again, barely able to produce a simple wisp. It wasn’t until he heard the creak of the door that he realized that someone was now with him, and he immediately turned to find Dong Sicheng, Hufflepuff Quidditch extraordinaire and captain. 

“Professor Heo said you’d be here,” Sicheng explained. He’d kept a careful watch over the Gryffindor captain, especially because one of his Beaters, Junhui, had unintentionally helped injure Yukhei. “I’m sorry my Beater fucked your chest up; I brought you chocolate.”

Muttering a quiet “thank you,” Yukhei accepted the chocolate, breaking off a piece and putting it into his mouth. Attempting the Patronus Charm had always given him a headache, beyond the exhaustion that usually came with casting it. Remembering that Sicheng was a sixth year, one year ahead of him, he finally asked, “Could you help me with the Patronus?”

“As long as you teach me how to do a nonverbal spell,” Sicheng said. Yukhei eagerly nodded, and the two parted ways as they left the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom to return to their respective dorms.

-

Sicheng sighed as he tightened his grip on his wand, pausing right in front of the door. He had a great appreciation for healers, but he couldn’t help but be unnerved by the atmosphere at St Mungo’s — especially as he made his way to the wing dedicated to those that had suffered permanent damage, by magic or other means.

It was unsettling to see all those that would likely never leave the walls of the hospital.

Deciding to finally open the door, he stepped in cautiously, smiling slightly.

“Hey, Kun ge, how have you been?”

-

The next time Yukhei practiced the Patronus Charm, Sicheng took him to the Room of Requirement; N.E.W.Ts were coming up soon for the seventh years, and the seventh years had taken refuge in the classroom in order to do some last minute cramming. Sicheng had also managed to find him a practice mannequin resembling a real dementor, since Yukhei had expressed difficulty concentrating during one of his practices.

“Professor Heo can’t actually produce a corporeal Patronus,” Sicheng informed him, sitting in the corner. Usually, he liked to do some light studying while Yukhei practiced, but sometimes he would get sidetracked by the younger, who liked to engage in conversation whenever possible. “You know how incorporeal Patronuses are wispy? He says he thinks it’s, like, cute, so he doesn’t bother learning to make a corporeal one.”

“And yet he made me learn it —” Yukhei protested, suddenly going quiet as he saw the bookmark Sicheng was using to mark his place in his History of Magic textbook. He recognized that bookmark, he knew he did. It was the same one that he always saw in his memories whenever he thought about his earlier years at Hogwarts, whenever he thought about Kun.

Kun.

He hadn’t thought about what had happened to Kun — about the sickening crack as the enchanted Bludger made contact with Kun, and everything afterward. He hadn’t ever talked about it. After all, they were supposed to have been inside, but Yukhei had told them all that it would be fine, so they had gone outside to play a quick round of Quidditch. Yukhei hadn’t even checked the balls as his father had always instructed him to — the idea that someone could enchant one to cause amplified harm had always seemed so stupid to Yukhei, who would enchant a Bludger to do their bidding?

Sicheng stepped forward, managing to catch Yukhei as the younger’s knees gave out. He’d never told Yukhei that he had been there, too — that he’d known Kun, too. Sicheng knew that Mark, Renjun, and Yangyang, had meant no harm in keeping the truth away from Yukhei, and it was evident that Yukhei had blocked out the memory for as long as he could.

“It’s not your fault,” he assured, managing to sit down without letting go of Yukhei. He cleared his throat. “You remember Ten, right?”

“Of course I know who he is,” Yukhei responded. Under his breath, he added, “Renjun won’t let me forget that I once charmed his hair Slytherin green.”

“Well, he got the guy that hit Kun ge into Azkaban,” Sicheng said, “even if he got himself in bookkeeping duty for a month because he’s not an Auror.”

“He was in love with him, right? Must be nice to have someone willing to get in trouble with the Ministry for you,” Yukhei joked.

“Must be.”

-

Yukhei spent more time with Sicheng after that, to the point of staying over with the latter for their summer break — making sure to send Juno with a letter to his parents, asking for permission. They’d accepted, since Sicheng’s family was relatively close to his, with the condition that Sicheng eventually came around to visit. They hadn’t seen each other in years, ever since Kun’s incident. Two weeks into their summer break, Yukhei and Sicheng decided to visit Kun once and for all. Ten was in town, so they’d decided to tag along with him. 

“You’ve grown,” Ten commented, as he saw Yukhei. He grinned as he made eye contact with Sicheng, who shoved Ten playfully. Yukhei didn’t pay it much attention, leading them as they made their way towards Kun’s room. He wasn’t sure how to feel; he hadn’t even remembered what had happened until recently, after Sicheng had begun to help him learn the Patronus Charm. He’d even gone to his friends — to Renjun, to Yangyang, to Dejun — to ask if they had known the whole time.

And they had.

“Hello!” Kun greeted them, a cheerful smile adorning his features. Sicheng stifled a laugh as Ten’s face lit up once Kun glanced at him. Ten handed him the single rose that he had placed in a vase that he had picked specifically for Kun; Yukhei had personally watched as Ten browsed through the wide variety of vases available at the muggle store they had chosen.   
“They’re fucking cute,” Sicheng mumbled, pulling Yukhei back by the wrist slightly as Ten and Kun began to quietly flirt in the way that they had ever done — gentle hugs and glances. They had flirted before the incident, and Kun had some of his memories, but Ten didn’t want to potentially take advantage of Kun. “Do you want to sneak out for a bit? I promise you’ll be to talk to him later, but I think he’s a bit busy right now.” 

“Okay.” He let himself be led by Sicheng, as the latter expertly navigated the complicated hallway setup of St Mungo’s. They ended up at one of the fireplaces in the front. “We can’t — well, I can’t — Apparate until October, but Floo Powder’s almost as good, isn’t it?”

“There’s nothing stopping you now,” Yukhei joked, remembering the time Sicheng had tried to Apparate upon receiving his supplies list for his seventh year, only to almost lose an arm. Then there had been a different time where Sicheng had successfully managed to Apparate downstairs in his home; it was a miracle that Sicheng hadn’t yet been summoned by the Ministry for underage use of magic, given the amount of times he had attempted to Apparate before obtaining the appropriate permissions. Then again, most of those attempts had involved Sicheng getting Yukhei whatever snacks he wanted from the pantry. “Your chances are probably cloudy, with a chance of losing your leg, though.”

However, their plans were ruined by a disgruntled St Mungo’s worker, which resulted in Yukhei being dragged along again, this time returning to Kun’s room. Ten was gone, having cited a Ministry task as his reason for leaving. Kun seemed slightly disappointed, but this changed as soon as he spotted Yukhei.

“You’re all Sicheng ever talks to me about!” Kun exclaimed as soon as Yukhei sat down next to him. Sicheng sighed, rolling his eyes as he approached Kun as well. Spotting Yukhei’s Gryffindor Quidditch captain badge, Kun added, “It’s a shame you’re not a Ravenclaw, though.”

“Looks like you’re still the Ravenclaw elitist you always were,” Sicheng commented dryly. Changing the subject, he added, “Have you told him the story about how you met Ten — that it was because you spiked someone’s drink with Amortentia and it happened to be Ten’s best friend?”

“I accidentally Amortentia’d Johnny,” Kun said. 

“How do you accidentally spike someone with Amortentia?” Yukhei asked, suddenly interested. He’d always looked up to Kun as a figure to follow; Kun was reliable and he was responsible — so he’d never considered the idea that Kun had had teenage blunders of his own.

“It happens!” Kun argued.

“It does not happen,” Sicheng retorted, “you don’t see me accidentally spiking Yukhei’s drinks or snacks with Amortentia now, do you?” He smacked Kun lightly with a pillow as Kun replied under his breath, though Yukhei was unable to hear what Kun said.

 

 

Apart from visiting Kun, Yukhei and Sicheng often spent their time at the pet store nearest to Sicheng’s house. There was a magnificent grey owl there that Sicheng adored, and could only ever dream of owning. Sicheng’s current owl had been relegated to being the family owl, mostly because Sicheng rarely, if ever, sent messages by owl.

While Sicheng went out to fulfill some errands that he had been putting off for a while, Yukhei took a small pouch of Galleons and Sickles in his bag. Making his way towards the shop was fairly easy, despite the fact that the area was fairly known for dementor activity. Purchasing the owl was the simple part — he’d managed to gather the exact amount that the shop owner had wanted in exchange for the bird. Once he was out of the pet store, Yukhei felt a familiar freezing breeze.

He hurried his pace, moving as fast as he could without disturbing the grey owl, in its cage. The cage hit his legs, hard, as he walked. Yukhei wanted to avoid encountering dementors, because it had been several weeks since he had last attempted casting a Patronus — even though he had now recovered his relationship with Kun, there was still a certain guilt that Yukhei had felt whenever he tried casting a Patronus with a memory involving Kun. After all, the man that had attacked Kun had been aiming to attack Yukhei as revenge to his parents, given the fact that Yukhei’s parents had helped bring down an influential Death Eater years before; yet Kun was the one condemned to stay in St Mungo’s for the next few years, while Yukhei was out, free to do whatever.

It was unfair.

Either way, Yukhei’s wisp of a Patronus would’ve been practically useless when faced against numerous dementors.

Opening the cage, Yukhei looked for whatever scrap of parchment he could find in his pockets, handing it to the owl. “Take this to Sicheng, and stay with him.”

Truthfully, he had no idea if his plan was going to work; he wasn’t even sure if the owl would find the correct Sicheng, but he figured that it was probably for the best that the owl left. 

Even though he knew that it was useless, Yukhei ended up making several attempts at a Patronus — some more effective than others. It helped for a while, and he was able to make some progress on the way back to Sicheng’s house. Yet he was growing exhausted as the seconds passed, and the last thing Yukhei saw before passing out was a beautiful silver stallion Patronus.

-

Sicheng sighed quietly, folding up the letter emblazoned with the Ministry of Magic seal — a summons to a trial for using magic while underage. Setting the letter aside, Sicheng turned to face Yukhei again, checking to see if there had been any changes. The owl Yukhei had bought him stood on the perch he’d bought for Juno whenever Yukhei stayed over; the perch for his old owl had been moved out already, since it was the family owl now. He’d wanted to buy a new perch, but the owl Yukhei bought him seemed content enough.

He knew that his parents would probably question him for the summons, that Ten would give him the same line he always did about how staying out of the Ministry’s eye was the best; he knew that casting the Patronus had probably not been the best decision, but he’d wanted to protect Yukhei. 

Sicheng grabbed one of his textbooks to distract himself while time passed. He remembered playing with Yukhei when they were younger, getting along fairly well enough despite their age difference. But they had stopped talking when Kun’s incident had happened; Sicheng knew that Yukhei felt guilty for what had happened, and so did he — for his own reasons. However, it was a lie that he’d first noticed Yukhei again during their Quidditch match; he’d seen Yukhei long before, occasionally leaving him small gifts and such to brighten his days whenever he felt down. His thoughts were interrupted by Yukhei stirring awake, and Sicheng immediately tried pretending to study a Charms book he had left out.

“You’re a fool,” Yukhei murmured, struggling to sit up.

“Speak for yourself.” Sicheng shoved a chocolate bar that he’d managed to get Ten to buy, remembering some advice an older student had given him years before. “Why would you even do that?”

“First of all, all I did was buy you a new owl.” He gestured towards the owl in question, which seemed to be making itself comfortable in the corner of Sicheng’s room. “You cast the Patronus Charm outside of school grounds, before your birthday. You might have gotten yourself expelled.”

“Oh well, good thing Quidditch doesn’t care about my N.E.W.Ts.”

“That doesn’t make it better!” 

“You’re both idiots, how about that?” Ten interrupted. The two turned to see him, accompanied by Kun. Noting their surprise, Ten added, “Look who's been discharged. He lives with me now.”

“So you can keep him from spiking people’s food with Amortentia?” Sicheng joked, resulting in Kun lightly hitting his forehead against the doorframe at the mention of the infamous Amortentia incident.

-

They quickly came to an agreement that Kun had to be introduced to the muggle movies he had missed during his stint at St Mungo’s; two grocery trips and one pillow fort later, they had finally settled in for what had originally been an impromptu movie night. Ten was the one behind most of the preparations, and maybe if it hadn’t been Kun, Ten wouldn’t have cared as much. But it was Kun, so everything had to be perfect.

Yukhei was still rather drowsy from the earlier events, so Sicheng found himself gravitating more to him than he did to Kun and Ten. Besides, Ten was busy giving Kun the background knowledge related to the movie; Sicheng personally had never had the same taste in books as Ten did, so he felt it was best to stay out of their way. This led him to seek out Yukhei, who also seemed confused by the movie’s premise.

The earlier conversation about Sicheng’s possible impending expulsion from Hogwarts was long forgotten, and they made small talk as the movie progressed. Their conversations were peppered with fragments of Ten and Kun’s conversation that they overheard. 

“They’re so oblivious,” Yukhei murmured, taking in the scene. Before Sicheng could protest, Yukhei continued his statement, pointing at the two characters in question. They weren’t the leads, or even the second leads, so Sicheng hadn’t even bothered paying attention to them; meanwhile, they were the only two that Yukhei had truly paid attention to. “I feel like it’s a step in the right direction that they’re realizing their feelings, but they should wait. He doesn’t even know her favorite color.”

“Your favorite color is that faded red from your old Gryffindor hat.”

-

As it turned out, Sicheng was not expelled from Hogwarts, allowing for Yukhei and Sicheng to return to Hogwarts. Although they made the effort to see each other and talk, their only real interactions came whenever they faced each other in a Quidditch match, or as they passed each other in between classes. Even their plans to meet at Hogsmeade to catch up would fall through, because Sicheng was constantly swamped in work, as preparation for his N.E.W.Ts; Yukhei, on the other hand, was having some trouble with two N.E.W.T level classes he had chosen — Potions and Transfiguration, which took place during the same time slot — and therefore had to rely on an old Time Turner in order to attend all of his classes. There had even been a point in which he had considered using the Time Turner in order to spend time with Sicheng, but one of Yukhei’s roommates advised against it, so Yukhei discarded that idea completely. 

Ultimately, Yukhei decided that this was a horrible time to acknowledge his feelings for Sicheng, yet here he was — unable to concentrate on whatever godforsaken assignment he was supposed to do for his Potions class, because his mind kept thinking about his summer with Sicheng. 

Deciding that, at this rate, he would never finish his essay on the historic uses of asphodel, Yukhei began putting his supplies away, making sure to stash his last ink bottle away safely — his roommates had the tendency to use his ink whenever they ran out of ink or couldn’t find their own, and Yukhei was already stretching his luck with this bottle as it was — before grabbing Renjun’s invisibility cloak and leaving the dorm. It was still fairly early, but Yukhei didn’t know what time he would be returning to his dorm, so he decided he would rather be safe than sorry. He didn’t really have a destination in mind, so he wandered around.

This brought him to the Owlery, where seeing Sicheng’s owl gave him an idea.

-

quidditch pitch. right after dinner.

 

Sicheng would be lying if he knew what Yukhei was planning; he hadn’t seen the latter in approximately three months, due to their scheduling differences, but they had maintained contact after Sicheng had begun using his owl to send Yukhei letters, which were delivered at the beginning of every day by the owls. Yukhei often replied by sending letters with his own owl; even though it wasn’t a great system, it sufficed. 

It didn’t stop him from missing Yukhei any less, though.

The message had been written on a crumpled scrap of parchment, and it contained no other details; however, he immediately went to one of the more hidden nooks near the Quidditch pitch, where he and Yukhei used to hang out whenever they had time. It was getting late, but Sicheng was fairly confident in his ability to cast invisibility spells — thanks to the practice he had gotten out of casting it on himself whenever he sneaked out after curfew throughout his years at Hogwarts. Right after he had moved over to a more hidden corner, Sicheng turned to see a wispy, but still relatively bright cheetah Patronus seemingly running after him, before settling a few feet away.

“I remember when we first met, at Hogwarts, at least, because we technically already knew each other from before,” Yukhei’s voice began. It took Sicheng a moment to process the fact that the cheetah Patronus in front of him was Yukhei’s, and that Yukhei was very clearly confessing to him. “I was in my second year and you were in your third; it was my first time watching a Quidditch match because I hadn’t really considered it appealing before, and everyone kept talking about the Chaser that was sure to bring Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team out of the gutter. And we didn’t really talk until last school year, when, y’know, your Beater slammed that Bludger into my chest. And, you’ve been busy for the past three months, so it would be great if we could go to Hogsmeade together next Saturday — as more than friends, I mean. I promise I won’t drag you to Madam Puddifoot’s.”

“Of course I’ll go with you,” he responded, momentarily forgetting that Yukhei’s voice was coming from the Patronus, and not from the Gryffindor himself. “Oh… wait.”

“Thank Merlin,” he heard. Yukhei took off the invisibility coat he was wearing, appearing in front of Sicheng, who proceeded to hug Yukhei. “And thank you, by the way. For believing that I’d actually cast the Patronus.”

"You're amazing as it is, all you had to do was realize it." Sicheng said. "Butterbeer? It's on me."


End file.
